21:11
Alcaraz-Purcell: 0-0
The Spaniard serves hard, but not too well placed in the middle, whereupon the first longer rally ensues. Purcell seizes the initiative and then slams a spectacular forehand longline winner in the face of the world number one. What a start!
21:10
Alcaraz chooses the setback
Max Purcell wins the coin toss but doesn’t choose to open the game with his own service. Instead, he chooses setback. The young world number one consequently serves first.
21:04
The players are there
Carlos Alcaraz and Max Purcell have reached Center Court and are taking their assigned benches. The warm-up can start shortly.
20:40
Do not start before 9:00 p.m
The first quarter-final of the evening between Hubert Hurkacz and Alexei Popyrin has just ended on the center court of the Lindner Family Tennis Center. After losing in the qualification against Max Purcell, he moved up to the main draw as a lucky loser and surprisingly advanced to the quarter-finals. The duel between Carlos Alcaraz and Max Purcell can therefore rise at 9:00 p.m. sharp.
20:31
Premiere for both players
Incidentally, there has never been a clash between Carlos Alcaraz and Max Purcell, who are now clashing for the first time in a rated singles game on the ATP Tour. For the Australian it is also the first individual in which number 70 in the current ATP world rankings faces the reigning world number one. The 25-year-old, who until recently mainly played tournaments on the Future and Challenger Tour, shouldn’t be lacking in motivation.
20:25
Purcell in the run-up to the tournament with a 3:10 annual record on the ATP Tour
On the ATP Tour, Max Purcell only played 13 singles games in the 2023 season in the run-up to the successful qualification for the Western & Southern Open. The man from Sydney only won three of these 13 singles, which is why his run in Cincinnati and especially the victories over the clearly favored Casper Ruud and Stan Wawrinka seem to come a bit out of nowhere. In any case, his triumph over Casper Ruud on the third attempt was the first career victory ever against a reigning top 10 player.
20:16
Purcell in the Masters quarterfinals for the first time after five wins
Max Purcell has quite a few more minutes of play at this year’s Western & Southern Open. The 25-year-old Australian had to beat Luca Van Assche and Alexei Popyrin in qualifying, winning 2-1 each, before eliminating Lloyd Harris, Casper Ruud and finally Stan Wawrinka in the main draw. In only his second Masters tournament ever, the Australian made it straight into the quarter-finals.
20:12
Two complicated matches for Alcaraz
The Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz has not yet been able to shine in Cincinnati. As a top-seeded player, he only entered the second round, in which he only beat Australian qualifier Jordan Thompson (ATP 55) 2-1 in a match lasting two hours and 48 minutes. Yesterday he was even on the field for three hours and 14 minutes against Tommy Paul (ATP 13). After two tiebreaks he was able to assert himself in the deciding set with 2:1.
20:06
Alcaraz with an outstanding year 2023
Carlos Alcaraz goes into this David vs. Goliath duel as the big favorite. The 20-year-old has won 51 of his 56 individual games played on the ATP Tour in calendar year 2023 and has already secured six individual titles this year. The big highlight was winning the Wimbledon Championships when the Spaniard beat Novak Djokovic 3-2 in the final. Theoretically, there could be a remake of this endgame here in the United States of America. Djoker is also there and meets local hero Taylor Fritz tonight.
20:00
Welcome from Ohio
Welcome to the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio. The second quarterfinals of the Western & Southern Open 2023 will take place here today. The top seeded Carlos Alcaraz has to deal with Max Purcell.